The great historian Sri Kota Venkatachalam (21-4-1885-12-11-1959) was born in Madhunapuram Agraharam, Gannavaram Taluqa, Andhra Pradesh, to his parents Challa Subbarayudu and Annapurnamma and was given in adoption at the age of 8 years to Kota Nityanandam and Lakshmidevamma, of Machilipatnam, Andhra Pradesh. Kota Venkata Chelam married Sitaramamma of Mutnuri family in the year 1902, when her age was 10 years.
Pandit Kota Venkatachalam was a great Sanskrit scholar and historian who combined the knowledge of Geography, Mathematics, Astronomy, Jyotish Shastra and dedicated many years of his life to the re-construction of bharateeya chronology from primary sources.
Pandit Venkatachalam spent several years reconstructing the true chronology from primary sources while cross-referencing and validating across multiple sources. He corroborated his findings with inscriptions (eg, Aihole, two of Janamejaya’s inscriptions), and archaeological evidence. He refuted the `Aryan Invasion Theory’ and came up with the `Out of India Theory’, suggesting that the Mlechchha kings, particularly the Yavana Kings (kings who had stopped observing Vedic rituals and were ex-communicated), were driven to the north-western frontiers of Bharatavarsha – to what is present day Afghanistan); and migrated westward to occupy the eastern and southern parts of Greece. This strengthens the view of several historians who strongly advocate that the knowledge travelled from East to West, and justifies the similarities between the Greek and Hindu systems and beliefs. Some of the sources consulted by Pandit Venkatachalam for his work are the Rig Veda, Surya Siddhanta, the Puranas (Brahmanda, Vishnu, Bhavishya, Bhagavat), Kalhana’s Rajatarangini which describes the history of Kashmir Kings, Nepal Rajavamsavali which chronicles the history of Nepali Kings, Jyotirvidabharana, etc and Buddhist writings among many others.
Pandit Venkatachalam exposed the motives of the majority of the western Indologists who could not accept the Hindu belief that we are in the 28th Kaliyuga, which meant that the universe was 195 crores years old. They were convinced that, according to the Old Testament, the world was created in six days during October 4004 BCE. Due to this, the European Indologists rejected the Puranas and other ancient texts as fiction and began to look for European evidence to develop the history of Bharat. However much later, Darwin’s Theory of Evolution and geology accepted that the earth was hundreds of millions of years old. The idea that Earth is billions of years old gained acceptance after 1905, when radioactivity was understood.
For the westerners, Bharateeya history had to fit within the Biblical timeline. William Jones, in consultation with Warren Hastings, the then Governor General of India, began doctoring dates to fit within this Time-frame and he rejected everything before the Kaliyuga as fictional. The only event that connected the West with the East was Alexander’s sojourn to the East. Jones had to connect Alexander to some event in Bharat, so he and others did the following:
- Discarded Bharateeya texts as fictional and unreliable.
- Relied on vague accounts of foreign travellers (Megasthenes, Fa Hien, Hiuen Tsang).
- Decided that `Xandrames, Sandrocottus and Sandrocyptus’ from Megasthenes’ Indica, were referring to Mahapadmananda, Chandragupta and Bindusara of the Maurya dynasty, even though they were clearly referring to Chandramas (Chandrasri), Chandragupta and Samudragupta of the Gupta dynasty.
- Doctored coins to falsify history, and used these as confirmatory sources of dates.
- Tampered with some inscriptions (eg, Aihole), while ignoring others.
- Tampered with Kalhana’s Rajatarangini and other books.
- Declared Raja Vikramaditya of Ujjain and Salivahana were fictional characters and removed the dynasty of Agni Vamsa from 101 BCE to 1193 CE (~1300 years) to make the timeline fit within the western biblical constraints.
The results of this distortion were:
- Buddha got pushed from 1887 BCE to the 6th Century BCE
- Chandragupta Maurya got pushed from 1534 BCE to 327 BCE
- Adi Sankaracharya got pushed from 509 BCE to 788 CE
- Gupta dynasty got pushed from 327 BCE well into CE
- Raja Vikramaditya of Ujjain, Salivahana and the Agni Vamsa kings were entirely removed from History.
Puranas and their historical significance
There are “five characteristics” or “five signs” of a Purana. These are called the Pancha Lakshana (pañcalakṣaṇa).
- Sarga: cosmogony or the creation of the world
- Pratisarga: cosmogony and cosmology
- Vamśa: genealogy of the gods, sages and kings
- Manvañtara: cosmic cycles, the history of the world during the time of one patriarch
- Vamśānucaritam: Accounts of royal dynasties, including the Suryavamsha and Chandravamsha kings.
Therefore, there is a historical element (Vamśānucaritam) that is part of Puranas. The history of the civilization may be reconstructed from ancient texts, geological evidence, archaeological evidence, coins and inscriptions. Of these, the ancient texts are usually considered the primary evidence, whereas the other sources are considered as corroborative evidence.
According to Hinduism, the present yuga is Kali Yuga. As per the Puranic sources, Krishna’s departure marks the end of Dvapara Yuga and the start of Kali Yuga, which is dated to 17/18 February 3102 BCE, thirty six years after the Maha Bharata War (i.e., 3138 BCE).
Interpretation of the Aihole inscription of Pulikeshi II, dated to Saka 556 (i.e., 634 CE) by eminent Hindu historians reveals that the Mahabharata war took place in 3138 B.C and the first year of Kali era is 3101 B.C.
Sri Venkatachalam has evolved an authentic account of the dynasties of the kings based on texts of different puranas such as matsya,vayu, bhavishya and Bhagavata puranas. The chronology of the dynasties assigned by him is given below.
| Event | Date(s) |
| End of the Mahabharata war and coronation of Yudhisthira | 3138 BCE |
| (commencement of Yudhisthira Era) | |
| Beginning of Kali Era, disappearance of Sri Krishna | 3102 BCE |
| Coronation of Parikshit (Kali year 1) | 3101 BCE |
| Beginning of Saptarshi Era (Kali year 26) | 3076 BCE |
| Rule of Janamejaya (Kali year 61) | 3041 BCE |
| Coronation of Brihadkshana after the death of his father | 3138 BCE |
| (Brihadbala) of Ikshvaku clan by being killed by Abhimanyu | |
| Brihadratha dynasty, 1006 years (22 kings, Somapi to Ripunjaya) | 3138–2132 BCE |
| Kosala dynasty, 1504 years (30 kings, Brihatkshana to Sumitra) | 3138–1634 BCE |
| Pradyota dynasty, 138 years, (5 kings, Pradyota to Nandivardhana) | 2132–1994 BCE |
| Shishunaga dynasty, 360 years, (10 kings, Sisunaga to Mahanandin) | 1994–1634 BCE |
| Coronation of Magadha king Ajatashatru | 1814 BCE |
| Siddhartha Buddha’s birth (i.e 72 yrs before Ajatashatru), he | 1886–87 BCE |
| being 110th king of Ikshvaku clan and 24th after Brihadbala | |
| Buddha’s nirvana at Kushinagara | 1807 BCE |
| Rule of 29th (last) king Kshemaka of Hastinapura | 1634 BCE |
| Rule of 30th (last) king Sumitra of Kosala | 1634–1534 BCE |
| Nanda dynasty of Mahapadma Nanda and Sumalya (100 years) | 1634–1534 BCE |
| Coronation of Chandragupta Maurya | 1534 BCE |
| Maurya dynasty (316 years, 12 kings) | 1534–1218 BCE |
| Milinda’s rule (~500 yrs after Buddha nirvana) | 1307 BCE |
| Rule of Kanishka in Kashmir (along with Hushka, Jushka) | 1294–1234 BCE |
| Sunga dynasty (300 years, 10 kings) | 1218–918 BCE |
| Kanva dynasty (85 years, 4 kings) | 918–833 BCE |
| Andhra Satavahana dynasty (32 kings, last being Chandramas, 506 years) | 833–327 BCE |
| Mihirakula’s rule (64th king of Kashmir) | 704–634 BCE |
| Time of Adi Shankaracharya | 509–477 BCE |
| Gupta dynasty (Andhra bhritya) of Pataliputra | 327–82 BCE |
| Birth of Vikramaditya of Ujjain (Panwar or Paramara dynasty also known as Agnivamsha ) | 101 BCE |
| Rule of Vikramaditya of Ujjain | 82 BCE – 19 CE |
| Commencement of Vikrama Era | 56–57 BCE |
| Vikramaditya sends his Court poet Matrugupta to rule | 14–19 CE |
| over kingless Kashmir in his name | |
| Birth of Vikramaditya of Ujjain (Panwar or Paramara dynasty also known as Agnivamsha )Commencement of Salivahana Saka Era | 78 CE |
| (great grandson of Vikramaditya) |
In line with the above, the other major historical events and their dates are as under:
- Coronation of Salivahana (great grandson of Vikramaditya of 57 BC) in AD 78
- Bhattotpala, Astronomer AD 338
- Bhaskaracharya great mathematician and Astronomer AD 486
- Coronation of Bhoja Raja in AD 638
- Birth of Ramanujacharya in AD 1017
- Birth of Madhwacharya in AD 1119
- Battle of Kurukshetra with Mohammad Gori in AD 1193
- Independent Bharat in 1947
- Birth year of eminent people like- Vardhamana Maha Vira (599 BC), Adi Shankara (509 BC), Establishment of the four Mutts by Adi Shankara – Dwaraka (491 BC, Jyotrimutt (486 BC), Govardhan Mutt, Puri (485 BC), Sringeri (484 BC), Nriyana of Adi Shankara (477 BC).
Twelve centuries of time after Mahabharata war and ten centuries before that are set right and our entire history has been put on right track again by Kota Venkatachalam through his 24 volumes of monumental research wok. He proved with irrefutable evidence that Chandragupta (Sandracottus) of Gupta dynasty was ruling from Pataliputra as his capital when Alexander invaded Bharat.
For a very long Time our historians thought that Gautamiputra Satakarni, Gautamiputra Yajna Sri Andhra Satavana kings mentioned in the puranas were merely mythological persons. But the discovery of inscriptions and coins near Nasik highlighted in the books of Sri Kota Venkatachalam has dispelled all doubts and historians began to caaept that these kings were real historical persons.
Sri Venkatachalm has resolved another major controversy of mistaken identity of Salivahanas and Satavahanas by European historians. Salivahana was a descendent of Panwar dynasty and king of Ujjain. He was grandson of Vikramaditya of 57B.C. King Vikramaditya of Ujjain was the founder of Vikrama Saka of 57B.C. In 78 A.D. His grandson defeated Sakas ultimately and drove them from our country. He was the Emperor who started the Salivahana Saka. He performed Aswamedha Yaga and conquered countries as far as Persia and received tributes from the Vanquished kings. But the Andhra Satavahans were the Emperors of Magadha who ruled from B.C.833 to B.C.327. Their capital was Girivraja. The Andhra dynasty of 32 kings ruled for 506 years. These calculations were based on the movement of the Saptarshi mandala and the figures given as the landmarks from the date of the Mahabharat war to the end of the rule of the Andhra dynasty. In this context one must remember that our ancient sages designed the Panchanga (calender) based on the planetary positions.
Sri Kota Venkatachalam’s available publications include the following:
English Publications
- Ancient Hindu History -Part I
- Ancient Hindu History- Part II
- Chronology of Nepal History, reconstructed.
- Chronology of Kashmir History, reconstructed.
- The Plot in Indian Chronology
- The Age of Buddha, Milinda and Amtiyoka and Yuga Purana
- Indian Eras
- Historicity of Vikramaditya and Salivahana
- Age of War (Published after his Sidhi)
Telugu Publications
- Bharateeya Sakamulu
- Gupta Rajulu Evaru
- Agni Vamsapu Rajulu
- Aryula Dhruvanivasa Khandanamu
- Kaliyuga Raja Vamsamulu
- Andhrula Puttu purvottaralu mariyu Jambu Dweepamu
Other Books
- Advaitha Bodhini
- Nirvichara Jeevanam ( two parts )
- Abhasa Kraistavam
- Bramhanda Srishti Vignanam
- Kali Saka Vignanam (three parts)
- Ashokuni Kalamu
- Manava Srishti Vignyanamu
He has been conferred the titles of “Bharata Charitra Bhaskara”, “Vimarsakagresara”, “Paakayaji” for his works. His other contributions include: · “Xandrames, Sandrocottus and Sandrocyptus” – Paper and Speech delivered at the Indian History Conference, Jaipur, Rajputana, 1951. He was an Interviewee and Responder to the First Sanskrit Commission, 1956.
Pandit Venkatachalam took sanyas in 1957 and became the Peethadhipati of the Sri Abhinava Virupaksha Peetham, He was known then, as Jagadguru Sankaracharya Sri Advayananda Sankarabharati Swamy. Swamy ji attained Siddhi on November 12, 1959 AD, or Kali Saka 5060, Vikari, Karthika Suddha Trayodasi.
It is high time the NDA Union Government (headed by BJP which is in power for 11 years and perceived by the people to be pro Hindu Dharma) forms an expert committee to look into the reconstruction of our history done by Sri Kota Venkatachalam and on validation of the same as per the global standards of acceptance, initiate the task of rewriting the history of Bharat.
Reference
- https://trueHinduhistory-kvchelam.blogspot.com/2009/08/magadha-empire-after-mahabharata-war-in.html.
- https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.490193/page/n29/mode/2up.
- https://trueHinduhistory-kvchelam.blogspot.com/2009/10/3-aihole-inscription.html.
- https://csisindia.com/the-man-who-told-indian-history-to-so-called-westren-indologists/
